A Magician Among the Spirits

Winner, 2022 Blue Light Poetry Prize

Charles Rammelkamp is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore, where he lives with his wife, Abby. The two are retired from federal government service. Rammelkamp is the author of several collections of monologue.

There have been many biographies of Harry Houdini but nothing quite like A Magician Among the Spirits, a nod to Houdini's own book by the same title. Charles Rammelkamp gets right under Houdini's skin to create a first person poetic autobiography of sorts that brings the world's most famous escape artist to life. A Magician Among the Spirits is a fast moving, deeply engrossing story of magic, transformation, drama, mystery, travel, and trauma in 55 poems that trace the course of Houdini's life, from his first dabblings in magic to his slightly mysterious death described in the coda by bereaved wife Beatrice. A striking portrayal of Houdini, as richly lyrical as it is engrossing. - Magdalena Ball, Editor-in-chief, Compulsive ReaderCharles Rammelkamp's engaging book of poems, A Magician Among the Spirits, presents the life of America's best-known magician, Harry Houdini. Escape becomes obsession, motif, and metaphor in this astonishing book. A Magician Among the Spirits, which appropriately takes its title from Houdini's own account of his campaign to expose fraudulent mediums, is a series of autobiographical monologues in Houdini's voice, with his wife, Bess, providing a coda after his death. These well-researched poems incorporate a wealth of detail, and reading this book is like listening to an entertaining raconteur. A Magician Among the Spirits will fascinate and delight both magicians and readers with a casual curiosity about Houdini. Rammelkamp is an impressive writer - both accomplished poet and masterful storyteller. - Miriam N. Kotzin, author of Debris Field. (David Robert Books 2017)